News
First water level monitoring station opens atop lower Mekong basin
The Mekong River Commission (MRC) has unveiled the Xieng Kok water level monitoring station in Laos that’s expected to reduce downstream vulnerability to unexpected flows. This could benefit millions who live downstream the Mekong River, an MRC Friday press release said. The station sits on Laos’s northern ...
Viet Anh
Innovate to eliminate: community-focused malaria interventions in Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic
How do you design a malaria elimination programme for hard-to-reach communities who already have difficulty accessing health care? This is the question confronting malaria workers across the Greater Mekong subregion. Malaria cases in Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic are mostly found among people living and ...
Cooperation key on Mekong issues
In the coming months, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) will host a unique competition for university students from our four member countries: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The objective is to see which team can develop the most effective, cost-efficient and sustainable technology to monitor water ...
ANOULAK KITTIKHOUN
GT investigates: Who are the mouthpieces of US-led war of public opinion on “Chinese dams’ threats” along Mekong River, and what are their typical methods?
US’ politicization of ecological water issues in the Mekong River for the purpose of tarnishing China’s reputation via launching rhetoric battles has become more trendy. The Stimson Center, a US-backed think tank, again bashed China in February for allegedly “holding a massive amount of water” ...
Hu Yuwei and Zhao Juecheng
Laos: Huge development project underway in Siphandone
Khong district, an island situated in the Mekong River in Champassak Province in the south of Laos is part of the area known as Siphandone, meaning Four Thousand Islands, and has long been popular with visitors for its laid-back bucolic feel. Siphandone is an archipelago of ...
Vientiane Times via Asia News Network
US lawmakers urge Thai govt to drop restrictive provisions in NGO bill
Two U.S. lawmakers are urging Thailand to drop provisions of a draft bill restricting NGOs, saying it would harm civil society and negatively impact the delivery of humanitarian assistance to neighboring Myanmar. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha’s government is seeking to pass a controversial bill regulating not-for-profit ...
Nontarat Phaicharoen and Subel Rai Bhandari
Journalist Taken to Court Over Report on Illegal Timber Factory
A video report alleging a Battambang timber factory was illegally processing luxury wood has landed a local journalist in court. Lim Phally, a reporter for Los Seng News, said he had asked for a delay for court questioning that was scheduled today. He was sued after a ...
Khut Sokun
OPINION: Thai agriculture needs reform from ground up
Thailand’s government badly wants the middle-income country to achieve advanced economy status. But it will fail unless it raises agricultural productivity and upskills rural workers for jobs in more productive sectors. This will demand hitherto unseen political commitment. For decades, political leaders have paid lip service ...
Craig Keating
Thai tourism elephants are ‘far better off’ in forests: Q&A with photographer Adam Oswell
An Asian elephant supports itself on one leg, completely submerged in garish electric-blue water, while a keeper tugs painfully at its ear. The photograph shows bubbles rising from its trunk as it offers a stick of sugarcane toward a crowd of onlookers on the other ...
Carolyn Cowan
Vietnam boosts satellite-based vessel monitoring to eradicate IUU fishing
Installing vessel monitoring systems (VMS) is one of the important measures the European Commission (EC) recommended for Vietnam to remove the EC’s “yellow card” warning against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The Directorate of Fisheries has certified eight VMSs that meet the standards stipulated in the Government’s Decree No. ...
VNA
